my father is not rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a bad one

II.

my mother is not a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a bad one

III.

I am not a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a drug trafficker or a criminal or a killer or a rapist
or a bad one either

IV.

when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
when America elects a president, they are not electing their best
though they’ve not yet begun to hear me scream

Eloisa Amezcua is an Arizona native. She earned a BA in English from the University of San Diego, where she was the recipient of the Lindsey J. Cropper Award for Creative Writing in Poetry selected by Ilya Kaminsky. In 2014, she completed the MFA program at Emerson College in Boston, MA. She’s received scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, the Vermont College of Fine Arts Post-Graduate Workshop, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, and the NY State Summer Writers Institute. Her debut chapbook On Not Screaming​ was published by Horse Less Press (2016). Eloisa is the winner of the 2016 Vella Chapbook Award from Paper Nautilus Press for her manuscript Symptoms of Teething, forthcoming in 2017. She currently lives in Phoenix and is founder and editor-in-chief of The Shallow Ends.